What Michael Knows Ch. 01

Author's note: This story will not be a straight-forward read nor will it be a quick stroke story. The first chapter will give you a taste of my approach in this story to tell both the current events and the events in the past that got us here. In the first chapter, I'm not going to be as specific with the timeline as I think it's important to not give too much of the story away too quickly. In future chapters, the timeline will be a little more clear when I bounce through time periods. Hopefully, the story is still clear despite that.

How many chapters will be there be? Currently, I'm in Chapter 8. My gut says there will probably be ten total chapters. I also have, if this story has enough interest, a sequel of sorts I have a loose idea of that could be written. My hope is to release a chapter every week, which will hopefully give me enough time to finish up before a long period of inactivity hits. Thank you for reading and please comment/rate.

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I know?

Stephanie Bell shook her head, trying to figure out what her youngest son was referring to. What did he know? Maybe it was that his father was planning to surprise him and his older brother with a fishing trip when the latter returned home from college next month? Stephanie was well aware that Michael was not a fan of fishing, but the seriousness in his voice told her that the mild annoyance of a day fishing on the lake couldn't have been that big of a deal to him. Besides, time bonding with his father was rarely something that bothered Michael.

She replayed the scene in her mind. She was carrying laundry to the living room, the baby monitor clipped to her robe, as her son grabbed his bookbag and headed for the door to for the short drive to his high school. He'd only need to make the minor journey for little more than a month before he graduated. Then, a few short months after that, he would be off to William & Mary.

Sighing, Stephanie was slightly depressed about that last fact. Her oldest son, Jacob, was at the University of Virginia, with one more year remaining. Her daughter, Melissa (or Lyssa), was working and attending class at the local community college. She was only taking two classes - likely just to appease her parents. Thinking of her reminded Stephanie that Lyssa would be waking up soon.

Back to the scene that had her perplexed, her son ducked his head into the living room. She plopped the laundry basket down, feeling strangely aware of her son's eyes on her. It made her rather self-conscious. Her robe was thick, yet she had the unshakable feeling like her son was looking at her ass. It was the same feeling she often had when accompanying her husband to his yearly office party where his drunken co-workers would eye-fuck her. Depending on their ability to feel shame, would either avert their eyes when she saw them or, worse, eye-fuck her harder now that she was looking. She never let Nathan know that she experienced a minor high from the episodes.

Though she had celebrated her third 39th birthday in October, Stephanie was not yet ready to let age win in her battle to keep her looks. Dark, straight hair - she made sure to pluck out any stray white ones - was meticulously cared for. She used a nightly regimen of creams and lotions to keep her skin smooth and retain the face of a girl in her 30's. Her body showed the typical signs of multiple births and it increasingly became difficult to work off those last few pesky pounds, but she still turned heads wherever she went as her pear-shaped ass swung back-and-forth with each step. She had to admit her breasts weren't where she wanted, but for men who loved a woman with plenty of ass and tits, she was their ideal choice. Luckily, she had a husband who enjoyed both.

He often laughed about how many of his co-workers were ogling her as they drove back from office parties. She joined in the laughter when he told her, "they don't often envy the IT guy, but then they see you and they wonder what secrets I must know about a woman's body to get such a beautiful vixen to myself."

She didn't receive as many looks at the most-recent office party. Being bloated with a bun in the oven doesn't attract quite as much attention. She was still two months away from popping out little Isabella, who must have thought it was hilarious to show up a week after her due date. Her mother was not all that amused. Having a child at 42 was never the plan to begin with. She thought her baby-making days had ended around the turn of the millennium when she had three children in a condensed time period.

Speaking of which, she heard Bella beginning to babble, letting Stephanie know the little munchkin was awake. They had yet to transition her to a crib so she slept in a bassinet in the same room as her parents. When Jacob returned home, the plan was to condense down his stuff and move Jacob in with his younger brother. After all, by the time mid-August hit, both would be gone anyway. That would open a room for Bella and Stephanie, though she loved her surprise baby with all her heart, wanted the space she had been used to for years. Back to just Nathan and her.

I know.

As she put the laundry aside and made her way to go see Bella for her morning change and feeding, the comment still confused her. He said it, waited a tick, and then left the house. Bent over, Stephanie straightened and looked back at where he was supposed to be, but only saw him walking to the door. The comment had bewildered her so much that she didn't even ask what her son knew.

She changed Bella while her mind was still on her youngest boy. Maybe she should text him? She could ask him to clarify, but then, she worried that he would be dumb and have his phone both on and with sound on. The teacher might hear it, confiscate it, and it'd be a whole different thing.

Taking Bella to the living room with her, she loosened her robe and let it fall to the couch. Dressed in just her underwear and a nursing bra, she unclasped one of the cups to free her breast. She had worried for months that, at her age, she wouldn't produce enough milk to feed her baby. On the contrary, she was often hurting because her breasts felt almost engorged. Luckily, this morning, they just felt heavy and Bella immediately latched onto her nipple as Stephanie propped herself up against the pillows on the couch and grabbed the remote.

I know.

What did he know? And why did he say it like he was aware of her involvement in a conspiracy to steal the Mona Lisa?

Or did he...?

She shook her head furiously, not wanting to let herself even consider where her mind wanted to take that question. No. He didn't know about that, she said to herself assuredly.

No way.

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The Past

It started out with a kiss,

how did it end up like this?

She chuckled at The Killers' tune that filled the room from his computer speakers. He also gave a small chuckle and she looked up at him with a smile. He was still trying to catch his breath. She loved to rest her head on his chest after sex. His heart raced so fast. It had been months since the last time they were able to get this kind of quiet moment with no interruptions.

"Well," he whispered as the music continued to play. "I meant to pull out."

She laughed again.

They used to be more careful. Or, to be more exact, they used to not worry. That was until she stopped taking her birth control a few months before. A year-a-half before this moment in time, her husband, Nathan, had a vasectomy. He had done it for the exact reason she considered no longer using birth control. She felt the pill was keeping her libido low and she read a lot of literature about mood changes. As a result, Nathan tried to do her a solid. He was such a good husband. The vasectomy was easier than her taking monthly pills after all.

She remained on the pill, though, for a few more months after the procedure until he found out.

"Why did I get the snip?" he asked, holding the package of birth control that she was half-through. He looked, much to her dismay, more sad than angry at finding out his wife had hid that fact from him. "Are you on it because...?"

She wouldn't let him finish the sentence. Of course, she wasn't cheating on him. She would never do that.

It was a lie. One of the many lies she had told. Once you start with a big lie, you often have to build more lies to keep the original lie from being discovered. Her next lie: she wasn't cheating - she was worried about the vasectomy reversing itself. But it was a bad lie because she could no longer use it to explain why she was still getting birth control. The chances of re-canalization, they learned, were extremely rare. And after all, he had, as he eloquently put it, got "the snip" for the exact reason that she no longer would need the birth control.

It was just bad timing, she thought. The affair, that is. It took a few months after the decision to get a vasectomy for the procedure to be performed. A couple of months in which she fell into the bed of another man. She never meant to cheat on Nathan. She had never strayed in nearly twenty years of marriage. But she felt more alive than ever. It wasn't really the birth control that had killed her libido, though she felt it go up a bit more once she stopped the pill. It was the lack of excitement with her marriage and the sex life she shared with her husband. The affair brought her renewed excitement and new, fresh desires.

She still loved Nathan. Still had sex with him - more when her other man was out of town than when he was. She had no desire to hurt Nathan or destroy her family. Her extramarital relationship had an expiration date. She understood that. It couldn't go on indefinitely.

In the mean time, she stopped birth control. Now, her affair included condoms during sex. But this time, they chanced it after he looked in his nightstand and noticed he didn't have any extra rubbers. She laughed when he said it would pull out.

"Didn't your father ever teach you about how pulling out doesn't really do much?"

He joined her in laughing. It was a rare day where they had time to truly enjoy one another. Her husband and daughter were both working - they wouldn't be wondering why she wasn't taking care of the house like she typically did on days like this. Michael was out of school by this point, but he was spending the week at the beach with friends.

Even though his cum was leaking from her pussy, he still brought his hand down to touch her there - his fingers sliding into her cunt where their combined juices made for a warm and sticking cocktail. Stephanie looked at him slightly amused. She forgot just how quickly a younger man could rebound after sex.

He kissed her. Like the song said, it started out with a kiss. Not this one. This kiss was one of thousands they shared since last winter.

Something did start that day, though. Isabella was born a little more than nine months later.

That is how it ended up like this.

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Present Day

She was asleep when Michael arrived home from school. Next to the couch where she had cuddled into a ball was a rocker, where Isabella slept peacefully. The noise of Michael opening the door and closed it woke up his mother, who noticed that Netflix wanted to know if she wished to continue watching Parks and Rec. She was on her fourth re-watch of the entire series.

Noticing her son, she held up a finger to her lips as he ducked his head into the living room. She was trying to tell him to be quiet. She wasn't sure if it was subconscious - she hoped that it was - but he licked his lips at the sight of her. She had changed into a loose blouse and a skirt. She liked the blouse because the v-neck was stretched out and easily allowed her to get access to one of her milk-filled breasts for feeding time. It was the kind of shirt she no longer could wear in public. And the way her son gawked her, she wondered if she could even wear it in the house. She wasn't showing anything too salacious - just her ample cleavage. But he was making it abundantly clear that he liked the view.

Smiling, Michael left her and headed to the kitchen for something to drink. A package of chicken was defrosting in the sink.

Moments later, his mother joined him as he poured some juice. He again gave her a once-over and wasn't very subtle about it. She wondered what has gotten into him. First this morning and now this? She understood hormones could wreck havoc on the brains of teenage boys, but he had never openly gawked her like this.

"How was school?" she asked, trying to shake the mood of the encounter.

He shrugged, but didn't respond. After putting the juice back in its rightful place, he turned and again stared at her body as if she was just a common whore rather than his mother.

Michael was different than his older brother in many ways. Whereas Jacob was a bit of an introvert, a writer, and more likely to be at home in front of his computer playing Minecraft than at a party, Michael was rambunctious and wild. He was one of the most popular kids in school. In fact, the previous fall, he had been named Homecoming King. He wasn't a star athlete, but good enough to play football, basketball, and baseball the last four years. His final season of high school baseball was probably his last year of competitive sports - unless he opted to try to walk-on at William & Mary.

Like his brother, he made all the grades he was supposed to make. But he didn't stick in his room studying by himself like Jacob. Michael had study groups and plenty of cute girls who loved to help him. And he was smart enough to let them help him even when he didn't need it.

That was another big difference between the two siblings. Jacob didn't have a steady girlfriend throughout high school or even the first couple of years of college. On the other hand, Michael rarely was single and Stephanie was quite aware he was sexually active. She had caught him twice red-handed and several other times, it was clear she had just missed him and his girlfriend-of-the-week engaged in some kind of sexual moment judging by their flush faces and tendency to be out of breath after she entered the room.

He was no sex-starved virgin. So, why was he looking at her like she was the next piece of ass?

"Well, I should get started on homework," he said. She smiled back at him. She wanted to bring up the whole "I know" thing, but she had worried herself by considering how controversial the knowledge that he knew could be. Maybe he found one of those pictures she forgot to quickly delete off her phone? Sometimes, the phone didn't seem to power down after she placed it down and instead of requiring someone unlock the phone, it would be ready to use by whoever picked it up. That's why she often deleted the pics and the conversations on facebook messenger. But maybe he picked up her phone and found it before they were deleted.

Her nightmare scenario was usually that her husband would find out. She hadn't considered if it was Michael.

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The Past

"So, I'm pregnant," she whispered to him.

He looked at her like she was speaking a foreign language. The room was dark outside of the light spilling in from the outside power pole. The light was split by the blinds, creating streaks across the room and his bed. She had stealthy entered the bedroom after four in the morning.

"Say something, dammit."

"Is it...?" He pointed to himself.

"Yes, you blockhead," she hissed back at him. "There is less than a 1% chance it would be Nathan's. Nearly zero. Trust me, I looked up the odds."

Later on, he would wish like hell he never said what next came out of his mouth. The look of hurt and disgust would be something he could not shake.

"And," he said. "There are no others?"

She didn't slap him. She didn't yell. She didn't react like most women he had angered reacted. Instead, she clocked him with a punch that rocked his jaw. Almost immediately, she felt pain radiate through her hand and she worried she had broken it. Nathan would later ask about the bruising, but she laughed it off. She clipped her foot on a leg of the coffee table and hit her hand on the way down like a clutz.

Another lie.

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Present Day

Dinner was nearly ready by the time Nathan came home. He kissed his wife and went upstairs to change out of his suit. He worked in IT at an accounting firm and things at the firm were ramping up hard as tax day was nearly here. Nathan was only given a part-time employee to help him as he worked to keep everyone up-and-running through this stressful time - often receiving the brunt of negative comments.

Stephanie was finishing up the gravy, whisking in the cornstarch, as she felt a presence behind her.

"You got changed quick," she said. "Hungry?"

"Very," he said. The he, though, was not her husband. It was Michael. His hands moved to her waist and she jumped at the touch.

"Oh!" Stephanie yelped. Trying to catch her breath, she turned her head and, almost by instinct to a man holding her from behind, she smiled. "Sorry, thought you were Nathan."

She went back to finishing the gravy - a bit unnerved by her son's grip on her hips. She felt him move closer and then she felt it. She gasped in response and a worried look overtook her face. Not only was her son gripping her hard, he was also hard. His bulge rubbed against the top of her ass as she tried to breath.

Stephanie wanted to tell him to back off. That she was his mother and he was not to touch her like that - especially with his filthy penis. She wasn't just some grade-school slut and he wasn't to treat her like she was just because he had screwed half of his school, and, according to one rumor, an English teacher. She was a woman and she would be respected.

At the same time, she felt frozen in fear. Everything about this day had befuddled her. It rocked her off her axis. She didn't know which way was up.

Fortunately, he moved away. Not out of some knowledge of how wrong he was to touch his mother like that, but because they both could hear Nathan's footsteps as he came back downstairs. Before her son left, though, he grabbed her ass.

She stared at him with her mouth open. He merely grinned back as he sat down at the table.

Stephanie turned back to the gravy, watching it bubble. She took it off the burner. All the while, she was thinking of just how to approach Michael. She definitely couldn't ignore his bold approach to grab at his mother. Further, she had to figure out just what her son "knew."

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The Past

"So, what are you going to do?"

Stephanie had her head in her hands and was holding back tears. Her hand hurt, her heart ached, and she felt like the walls were closing in on her. Having an affair was one thing. Now, she was pregnant? It had to be the one time they had sex in his bedroom when they didn't have a condom. She was sure, at her age, there was no way her luck would be that shitty.

He eyed her carefully, afraid to push her. Afraid to press her for more answers. His jaw still ached from the punch, but he wanted nothing more than to console her.

"I'll support whatever you decide. I'm all in."

She looked up, finally catching his eyes. There were a million reasons why they would never be a couple, but when he said things like that, it gave her a momentary pause and she considered the possibility of being his girlfriend - his partner in life. Maybe even his wife? It would never happen. But the dream was nice.

Stephanie grabbed his hand, squeezed it tightly. Pulled him back into his own bed. She curled away from him, holding his hand the entire time, until the two were in the perfect spooning position. The need to cry faded. The fear of it all did as well. If she could just stay like this, things would be okay. But she couldn't stay here with him. She would have to get back to her husband before his alarm.